Inside the Studio :: Erin Prais-Hintz, Tesori Trovati

Welcome to Inside the Studio!

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

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Every month I make a new limited edition Simple Truths component for the members of my Simple Truths Sampler Club. I use this as an excuse to play with the clay, experiment with new technique and learn something new. I also use this as my creative play time with the monthly challenges here on Art Bead Scene. 

I was extremely busy with a super-secret special trip to Colorado in September to film four hour-long videos on jewelry making techniques for Craft Daily (read all about it here!), so I missed my chance to make something in a timely fashion for the members. But I made sure to get the October piece done early and send them together, maybe too late for them to make something for September but I hope they liked the piece nonetheless.

I have to admit that I was quite stumped with the painting for September. It is a beautiful piece of art, and a few years ago, that would have been the only colors I would have used, but I embrace color in all it's glory now, and these muted tones were a bit sad to me. Still, I knew that I needed to come up with something related to the theme. It is not called a challenge for nothing!

I had to squint a bit to notice the roses and the colors were a bit dour to me. But I really do like this painting now that I have had a longer time to sit with it and absorb the details. I love the deco stylings of the figures and their porcelain skin. I adore the threads that are woven throughout with what look like little beads, pearls and sapphires, dotting the surface. And there is a fair bit of color... from the cream and golds to the bright blue, the sage green and the wine-stained roses.

The following is a little photo safari of my latest Simple Truth creation inspired by The White Rose and The Red Rose.

My instinct was to create something long and lean, like the ladies in the painting. 

Upon closer inspection, I started noticing the small swirl rose shapes, so I focused my attention there. 

{Swirls and curving shapes figure prominently in my work, I have come to find out, after filming in Colorado. ;-)}

Typically, I am using a pearl clay as my base, like a canvas for my painted art, but lately I have started to venture into using some colors, playing with mixing them and using more traditional polymer clay modeling techniques.
[Bad nail alert!]

 I just started picking up some clay that I had lying around and twirling it, never really sure what I was doing. 

And then I noticed that these twirls resembled teeny-tiny rosebuds.

As I mentioned, I like to experiment with this medium through these special limited edition pieces, so for this one I decided it should be more sculptural, as if those roses were popping off the page.

 

I made each rosebud by hand, and painstakingly placed it in just the right spot,

affixing it to a long and slender base in an antique bronze color to pull out that veil of antiquity that covers the inspiration.

Nothing ever goes to waste with clayers. 

These pieces were recycled into more roses, ensuring a natural mottling of color and texture.

The finished pendants were popped in the oven to bake.

 But something didn't seem right. The colors were too bright for the inspiration.

The finishing touch is that little hint of bronze on the edges of each petal,
applied by hand.

This picture reminds me of all the roses I used to save over the years,
including the only ones I have left and will not part with:
white roses, now crumpled like so many old newpapers, and yellowed with time, roses that I carried on my wedding day, 22 years ago on October 24, 1992, still wrapped in a vintage handkerchief from my grandmother.

When I was a baby, I was born premature, about 5 weeks. I was just about 5 pounds when I was born. 

I didn't learn this until I was in my teens, but my parents used to call me 'Rosebud' when I was a baby. That is such a comforting image, of my mother cradling my teeny body and naming me something so precious.  

So I am naming the rectangle 'Call Me Rosebud' and the heart shape 'Everything's Coming Up Roses.' They were a lot of work, but it was a true labor of love. 

These have been added to my website, in this rectangle as well as an elongated heart shape.

I will give away one rectangle-shaped 'Call Me Rosebud' pendant (retail value: $25) to one random commenter for the price of an answer to this quirky question: 

What nickname did you have as a child? {or as an adult?}
Has it stuck with you?

What is the story?

Do tell!